Roman Catholic Teacher Fired for Artificial Insemination

[Anxious Girl]

Linkage: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05 ... n#comments. But I'm sure if a guy impregnated an unmarried woman, he'd get off free, right? Hypocritical patriarchal jackasses.

[louisa05]

My biggest issue with this story is that the teacher was not actually Catholic. In the Catholic school where I taught, non-Catholic teachers were not required to abide by specifically Catholic teachings in order to retain employment. (And about 1/3 of the staff were not Catholic).

[Mela99]

Miserable dickbags.

Don't get me wrong; I'm a Catholic girl, and if there was a good Jesuit school in the area, I'd send my kids to it. I get the whole "respect our beliefs" but Jesus H Christ, how about in respect to her job? What did being pregnant by AI have to do with teaching kids to be good and decent people and learn math?

Jesus wanted the Catholic church to be HIS church; and HE was not a judgmental douchebag.

[FakePigtails]

Their seeming obsession with the status of her uterus and the manner in which it obtained that status is incredibly creepy.

[merrily]

But isn't this the modern day version of Mary? Shouldn't they be applauding her for not wasting a precious egg? :roll:

[OkToBeTakei]

I hope she wipes the floor with them.

Contract law is complicated huh? But discrimination laws are pretty clear. At least where I live.

[crazyforkate]

See, she should have just claimed God did it. Much quicker and maybe she'd get a pay raise.

[OkToBeTakei]

See, she should have just claimed God did it. Much quicker and maybe she'd get a pay raise.

And a free donkey :lol:

[GiGi_41]

My SO's cousin was fired from a well known catholic high school because she and her husband had artificial insemination. She isn't catholic but she was required to follow catholic teachings.

Supposedly if she never would have told them how she got pregnant they never would have asked.

[crazyforkate]

My SO's cousin was fired from a well known catholic high school because she and her husband had artificial insemination. She isn't catholic but she was required to follow catholic teachings.

Supposedly if she never would have told them how she got pregnant they never would have asked.

And she was married?! See, I vehemently disagree with the RCC firing someone for being pregnant and not married, but at least it sort of makes sense from their perspective. A married couple using AI? How the flip is that firable in today's world? Shudder.

[jaelh]

And she was married?! See, I vehemently disagree with the RCC firing someone for being pregnant and not married, but at least it sort of makes sense from their perspective. A married couple using AI? How the flip is that firable in today's world? Shudder.

see:

Any process by which the male spermatozoa and the female ovum are brought together apart from and wholly distinct from an act of natural intercourse. Long used in animal husbandry, the practice presents no moral problem in the lower forms of life. The Catholic Church teaches that among humans artificial insemination constitutes such a violation of the dignity of the person and the sanctity of marriage as to be contrary to the natural and divine law. Catholic teaching on artificial insemination (among humans) was summed up by Pope Pius XII in an address to Catholic physicians (September 29, 1949).

The various dimensions of the immorality involved include:

*in donor insemination (insemination with the active element of a donor);

*the third-party invasion of the exclusive marriage covenant in a kind of mechanical adultery;

*the irresponsibility of the donor fathering a child for which he can fulfill no paternal responsibility; and

*the deordination of his masturbation in order to thus donate his paternal seed.

Even if insemination could be artificially achieved with the husband's semen properly collected (without masturbation) the papal teaching still points out that any process that isolates the sacred act of human generation from the beautiful and intimate conjugal union of the marriage act itself is inconsistent with the holiness and intimate personalism of that two-in-one-flesh union which alone is appropriate for the generation of a child. As long, however, as the integrity of the marriage act is preserved, various clinical techniques designed to facilitate the process are not to be condemned.

from http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/ ... m?id=31983

[karismanic]

Thanks for the explanation, jaelh.

A friend's hubby (with a Catholic background) is refusing to go to our church now that the pastor and his wife did IVF. Now I see what the big stink was about from his perspective.

Crazy that a celibate dude armed with 1940s scientific info can dictate what people can do in their bedrooms...on in their doctors offices.

[jaelh]

It's nuts, isn't it?

It really bothers me that the concern is related to the sex act, and not to the child itself.* (other than point three, but that's about the fathers non-relationship, not the childs lack of relationship with the father).

Whether right or wrong, that's about *people* - where our ethical focus should be: people and the impact our choices have on others, esp those less powerful than us. Concern for masturbation and "intrusion" on the marriage relationship? good skydog; adults can make these decisions for themselves.

*not saying this should be a concern, just that it's a bizarre distortion of priorities that it's not.

[Nothing2CHere]

And she was married?! See, I vehemently disagree with the RCC firing someone for being pregnant and not married, but at least it sort of makes sense from their perspective. A married couple using AI? How the flip is that firable in today's world? Shudder.

And yet my three nephews, who were conceived via IVF (which the RCC is also against) were all baptized in Catholic churches, no questions asked.

[Arete]

IVF children are baptized, and are allowed access to all the sacraments. It has never been a part of the Vatican strategy to say those conceived using IVF cannot be part of the Church, for which I suppose we can thank God for small miracles.

[shedemei]

She should convert to Judaism and join Chabad, since the spiritual defects can be fixed by reading Tanya, a book about Kabbalah based on a book about Kabbalah that was made up in the 13th century. http://web.archive.org/web/200702102156 ... ?AID=41984

[FakePigtails]

The teacher was awarded $71,000 in lost wages and $100,000 in punitive damages: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/ ... 2920130604

"The jury decided that federal law trumps contract law," Klingler said. "You can't sign away your rights to be protected."

Klingler had suggested in court that Dias be compensated as much as $600,000.

"We're disappointed, but it's a very complex verdict, and we're going to have to study it before we decide whether to appeal," said Dan Andriacco, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

Andriacco said the archdiocese had fired employees many times for violations of the morality contract, including for pregnancies out of wedlock.

"It's not a particularly rare occurrence. What is rare is our being sued for it," he said.

Um, so did they just admit to having done something illegal a bunch of times? I'd love to see their asses nailed to the wall for doing this shit to other people too.

ETA another article: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jury ... a1g7UDVAhU

[fundiefan]

Just another reason I find the Catholic 'church' appalling.

[Jenny]

I read about this earlier today.

I was surprised by the outcome. To me, it seems wrong that people have spent big $$$ to send their child to Catholic school only to be taught "do as I say, not as I do".

[Librul]

I read about this earlier today.

I was surprised by the outcome. To me, it seems wrong that people have spent big $$$ to send their child to Catholic school only to be taught "do as I say, not as I do".

The woman in question didn't teach religion in any form. She was a computer teacher. Also not a Catholic.